3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/23/18

Jusuf Nurkic has a tough matchup on tap against Rudy Gobert and Utah Jazz. Which other NBA players are worth avoiding in DFS contests tonight?

In daily fantasy basketball, finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid.

You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about guys you may want to lessen your exposure to, or even fade altogether?

Avoiding players whose matchups or situations aren't as great as they seem can often be just as important as finding the best targets. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference between winning and losing your contests. Which players should we avoid tonight?

The Jazz rank just outside the top half of the league in fantasy defense against centers on our DvP Matchup Chart, but that is due to missing Rudy Gobert for a considerable amount of time. Gobert is holding players he defends to 46.7% shooting from the floor and only 51.7% shooting inside 10 feet. In their last meeting right before the break, Nurkic put up just 9.6 FanDuel points against Gobert, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him throw up another dud Friday night.

Marcin Gortat, C, Washington Wizards

FanDuel Price: $5,000

Marcin Gortat and Dwight Howard have squared off 23 times in their careers including the regular season and playoffs, but Howard has been the one to own their matchups lately. Gortat was held scoreless in their last meeting in January, and with Ian Mahinmi available to soak up minutes against Howard, Gortat may not get the playing time after playing Thursday.

In the two games straddling the All Star Break, Gortat has averaged just 20 minutes of court time. Considering Howard is limiting players he defends to just 47.0% shooting from the floor, Gortat could be a landmine waiting to happen on the second night of a back-to-back.

Trevor Ariza, SF, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Price: $4,400

Even though Trevor Ariza's salary is very low, he has also not played basketball for nearly a month thanks to his hamstring injury and the All-Star break. The Houston Rockets will likely ease him back into the rotation, so he is probably not a viable fantasy option in a tough matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Minnesota is holding small forwards to just 0.74 FanDuel points per minute this season, and considering it's his first game since January 28th, it would not be surprising to see Ariza on some kind of minutes restriction.

Jordan Sharp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jordan Sharp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TEHSHARP. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.